Oliver North: Putin's Trying to Re-create Old Russian Empire

Russian President Vladimir Putin is trying to re-create the Russian empire tantamount to that of Czar Peter the Great, according to retired Marine Lt. Col. Oliver North.

Appearing on "America's Forum" Tuesday on Newsmax TV, North told host J.D. Hayworth that Putin is trying to "ensure that the nearest neighbors of Russia are in his hip pocket" and that President Barack Obama is allowing it to happen.

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"There are bad things happening around the world today for which Vladimir Putin is responsible and for which Barack Obama is doing nothing," he told Hayworth. "Putin has expanded his control or expanded the control of Russia over a lot of things that, as I say, are important to us, and unfortunately [Obama] has not stood up to any of this.

"He's not tried to rebuild NATO, he's not done anything that would assure our NATO allies, and worst of all, if you're an American ally anywhere in the world today, whether it's in Seoul, South Korea, or Manila or Amman, Jordan, you've got to be very, very worried about what America would do for those countries if push came to shove in any of those places."

Under Obama's tutelage, the United States is seeing "grave uncertainty among our allies" and "no respect among our adversaries."

"On our southern border … we have a terrible relationship with Mexico, we have tens of thousands of people fleeing across our borders, many of whom are not Latin Americans, and we're looking at the prospect of Russian navy vessels calling not just in Cuba but in Venezuela and Nicaragua," he said.

"You're looking at a rebuilding of Russian relationships in places where they haven't been for 30 years. The Russians are now equipping the Egyptian army," North said.

"The Russians are in charge of making sure that what al-Assad does with his precursor chemical munitions, his weapons of mass destruction, are all being done under the auspices of the Russians. And the Russians are the ones that are telling the Iranians, look, you guys don't have to pay any attention to this so-called nuclear deal; the Americans will extend, and they did."